Alan Cunningham

815x1005x60mm

mixed media construction

In 1727, three men and eight boys from the remote St Kilda archipelago far off the West of Scotland were marooned on this inhospitable rock whilst on an annual fowling trip.

From September till the following May they survived against all odds through a northern winter on an almost vertical rockface.

When finally rescued the following spring, they learned the reason for their abandonment. Smallpox had devastated their families back on the main island, Hirta, leaving few survivors.

It is debatable as to whether they were the lucky ones.

247x596x75mm

mixed media construction

One of the largest catches of herring, the 'silver darlings', took place here on Loch Fyne during the heyday of the herring fishery.

The sixteen Loch Fyne skiffs from Lochgair would have made the most of the bounty.

295x380x53mm

mixed media construction, carved wood and copper

The brave wee boat and her crew endure all manner of hardship to bring us fish.

220x375x30mm

mixed media construction.

Boundaries and markers both constrain us and keep us safe.

570x145x6mm

Windvane.

Photo etched stainless steel.

1375x900x425mm

mixed media construction

'The fishermen with their boats would sail from Heisgeir on any day that a cormorant could fly against the wind'.

So it is said of the fishermen of Grimsay, who would sail to the Monachs, or Heisgeir, in search of lobsters.

The inscription on the face is in the original Scottish Gaelic.

245x130x64mm

painted wood

These and others were fun to make, obscuring the distinctive form of a steam drifter with dazzle patterns.

145x597x88mm

mixed media construction, painted wood

A tiny model of the Parthenon sits atop geological strata.

But which is the order and which disorder?

300x558x38mm

mixed media construction

While many boats run for harbour when a storm approaches, there is often one that will take the risk to carry on fishing.

252x 225x85mm

Hanging mobile

Laser cut plywood, copper tube, paint

This type of fishing boat is a Grimsay double ender, built by the Stewart family at Ceannaridh. It is a triumph of lightweight but very strong design and construction.

'Tuig thusa am bata agus tuigidh am bata thu'

The gaelic saying translates as 'Understand the boat and the boat will understand you'.

1400x840x55mm

mixed media construction

 The Laxdæla Saga of Iceland gives us the remarkable story of Unn the Deep Minded. Daughter of a Viking king, she found herself in a vulnerable position after her father and son were killed in battle.

Desiring to escape Scotland, she and her retinue of around thirty men sailed to Caithness in the year 895, where she secretly had a sturdier boat built in the woods. Voyaging first to Orkney, where she married a granddaughter to the Jarl, then to the Faeroes where she arranged another strategic marriage, Unn was then ready to gain her ultimate destination, Iceland.

That she was able to command the respect of so many men is testament to her natural authority and integrity.

When she finally claimed land and made it productive, she kept her word by freeing the slaves and granting all her followers and slaves farms to sustain themselves.

655x570x70mm

mixed media construction

The shipping forecast nowadays is essential information for fishermen of the North Sea and Atlantic grounds.

In the days of the steam drifters, it wasn't as sophisticated or readily  available. Seafarers relied on experience and their interpretation of conditions.

1208x705x100mm

mixed media construction

The Stewart family have been building boats on Grimsay since the early 1800's, a type of vessel known in Gaelic as Eather.

The double ended construction was light enough for the boat to be beached but strong enough to manoeuvre through the tidal narrows of North Uist and out to the Monachs in the Atlantic.

This is my tribute to their clever design and construction.

440x490x80mm

painted wood

The 'Silver Darlings' was the fishermen's byname for herring, especially during the good years.

100x127x50mm

laser cut and engraved painted wood

My favourite poem . . . in a suspended cube.

290x290x290mm

Laser cut and painted wood.

525x812x45mm

mixed media construction

This piece looks at how maritime Scotland has been navigated.

Echoes of Norse, Gaelic and more recent culture can be discerned in the coastal and offshore naming of topographical features.

The boat like shapes of Norse and Sgoth Niseach craft flank that of a vesica piscis.

mixed media construction

200x300x35mm

My second version of this theme.

385x385x20mm

laser cut painted wood

THUS FAR EXTEND, THUS FAR THY BOUNDS, THIS BE THY JUST CIRCUMFERENCE, O WORLD.

A snippet from Milton’s Paradise Lost, rightly or wrongly circumscribing human knowledge.

1110x149x92mm

Wall hung construction of wood and copper.

The St Kilda archipelago lies forty miles off the Western Isles of Scotland. Although abandoned by permanent human presence in 1930, it is still a seasonal home to over a million seabirds.

Much has been written about this group of islands and sea stacs, but nothing compares to actually going there.

295x375mm

wall hung embossment

handmade cotton paper

What started out as a lino print some time ago has evolved to become an embossment and debossment on beautiful thick paper, using a relief press.

As befits the title, the viewer must put effort into viewing the piece as the low relief only becomes apparent in oblique light.

I very much like the simplicity and modesty of using the one material.

Digital print of variable size that I use for making cards.

digital print

'The loveliest ship for the job that was ever built'

'Steam drifters broke more hearts than ever they uplifted'

Differing views of steam drifters.

290x170x120mm

laser cut wood formed into a möbius strip

Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind

Cannot bear very much reality.

Time past and time future

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present.

The quote is from T. S. Eliot's poem Burnt Norton, and muses on the nature of time.

The piece is intended to be handled.